Agent Orange

Taking on what one former U.S. ambassador called "the last ghost of the Vietnam War," this book examines the far-reaching impact of Agent Orange, the most infamous of the dioxin-contaminated herbicides used by American forces in Southeast Asia. Beginning in the early 1960s, when chemical defoliants were first deployed in Vietnam, Edwin A. Martini looks for answers to a host of still unresolved questions. What did chemical manufacturers and American policymakers know about the effects of dioxin on human beings, and when did they know it? How much do scientists and doctors know even today? Was the use of Agent Orange a form of chemical warfare? What can, and should, be done for U.S. veterans, Vietnamese victims, and others around the world who believe they have medical problems caused by Agent Orange?

Edwin A. Martini is associate professor of history at Western Michigan University and author of Invisible Enemies: The American War on Vietnam, 1975-2000 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007).